After Attorney General William Barr delivered his four-page summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report, the reactions from Democratic politicians indicate that they won’t be satisfied with a summary created by Trump’s hand-picked leader of the Justice Department.
Their reaction is not surprising particularly since Barr quotes the Special Counsel as saying “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Mueller also left it to the Attorney General to make the decision as to whether Trump’s behavior ever ventured into a criminally prosecutable level of obstruction of justice, which Barr promptly decided in favor of the president.
While Speaker of The House Nancy Pelosi has not released a statement on the Mueller report since Barr sent his summary, she made her wishes to see the entire report and all the evidence used to compile it quite clear yesterday when she announced that she would reject a classified briefing on the results until Congress was granted full access to the materials.
The American people deserve the truth. AG Barr must #ReleaseTheReport & allow the facts to be known! https://t.co/fQMUyuU22b
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) March 24, 2019
Other Democratic leaders echoed Speaker Pelosi’s stance on the wisdom of merely accepting the interpretation of the report made by a Trump administration insider who was selected for his role especially because of his published stance on expansive executive branch power. They universally called for Barr to release the full report to the public.
Most of the Democratic senatorial presidential hopefuls weighed in on Twitter with calls for full transparency
Congress voted 420-0 to release the full Mueller report. Not a "summary" from his handpicked Attorney General. AG Barr, make the full report public. Immediately.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 24, 2019
The American public deserves the full report and findings from the Mueller investigation immediately—not just the in-house summary from a Trump Administration official. https://t.co/8Lj0O881Cw
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) March 24, 2019
The Mueller report needs to be made public, the underlying investigative materials should be handed over to Congress, and Barr must testify. That is what transparency looks like. A short letter from Trump's hand-picked Attorney General is not sufficient.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) March 24, 2019
The entire Mueller report should be public: US Senator Amy Klobuchar in N.H. says making Mueller report public is ‘number one focus’ https://t.co/QeLDueyqPI via @BostonGlobe
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) March 24, 2019
Above all else, the American people deserve transparency and accountability. Attorney General Barr must release Mueller's full report to the public without any delay.
— Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (@gillibrandny) March 24, 2019
The leaders of House Committees still actively conducting their own investigations into the president weighed in as well.
Mueller’s report is going to have to be made public ASAP – a summary of his conclusions simply won't cut it. And the underlying evidence must be produced. Absolute transparency is required.
Mueller spent two years investigating, and the public has a right to know what he found: pic.twitter.com/tJWRTYtJDw
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 24, 2019
There must be full transparency in what Special Counsel Mueller uncovered to not exonerate the President from wrongdoing. DOJ owes the public more than just a brief synopsis and decision not to go any further in their work.
— (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) March 24, 2019
In light of the very concerning discrepancies and final decision making at the Justice Department following the Special Counsel report, where Mueller did not exonerate the President, we will be calling Attorney General Barr in to testify before @HouseJudiciary in the near future.
— (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) March 24, 2019
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Nadler’s vow to call Attorney General Barr in to testify in front of his committee proves that the fallout from the Mueller investigation
Other Democratic legislators piled on as well.
The American people are entitled to see the Mueller report, and its underlying documentation, for themselves.
They do not need or want the Trump Administration to summarize, sanitize, or spin the report. They simply want the truth. #ReleaseTheReport
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 24, 2019
Maybe Barr’s interpretation is right. Maybe it’s not. But why the heck would we be ok with an ally of President, appointed because of his hostility to the Mueller investigation, tell us what the report says?
Give Congress the report. Give the public the report.
Now.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) March 24, 2019
This is why Congress and the American people need to see the full Mueller report.#ReleaseTheReport https://t.co/fZwVBhufDh
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 24, 2019
I believe we need to hear from Bob Mueller. I think the country would benefit from hearing from him and not just taking the attorney general at his word.https://t.co/cC0zn5hku1
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) March 23, 2019
It’s clear at this point that as long as the full Mueller report remains unavailable for the public to see in its entirety, Trump’s Republican supporters will focus on the first portion of Mueller’s — “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime” — while the Democrats will be focusing on the second half of that sentence — “it also does not exonerate him.”
Either way, it appears that despite the filing of the final report the controversy over the Mueller investigation is far from over.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.